Murtada al-Zabidi
Aqd al-Juman fi Bayan Shuab al-Iman
- Author died
- 1205 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyyah lil-Ṭibā‘ah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzī‘
Aqd al-Juman fi Bayan Shuab al-Iman (The String of Pearls Explaining the Branches of Faith) is a short treatise on Islamic creed and ethics by the lexicographer and hadith scholar Murtada al-Zabidi (1145–1205 AH / 1732–1790 CE), organizing and categorizing the traditional branches of faith into overarching principles .
Composition and Purpose
Al-Zabidi completed the work on 6 Muharram 1179 AH (1765 CE) at al-Dawudiyya in Egypt . He composed it in response to a request from seekers of spiritual insight who asked him to compile a concise summary outlining the branches of faith (shuʿab al-iman) . Observing that scholars differed widely in their enumerations and classifications of these branches, al-Zabidi designed the treatise to provide a clear, unifying framework under which all individual branches can be systematically grouped .
Structure and Content
The author groups all branches of faith under three foundational principles (usul): faith in God (iman bi-Allah), faith concerning worldly livelihood and conduct (iman bi-l-maʿash), and faith in the Hereafter (iman bi-l-maʿad) .
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Faith in God is subdivided into:
- Belief concerning God's essence and divine attributes, such as His existence, oneness, life, knowledge, will, power, hearing, sight, and speech .
- Belief concerning God's acts and decrees, including belief in the angels, messengers, revealed scriptures, the created nature of the cosmos, and divine destiny (qadar), both good and bad .
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Faith concerning worldly conduct is divided into duties regarding oneself (nafsaniyya) and duties regarding others:
- Duties toward oneself comprise inward traits (batiniyya) and outward deeds (zahiriyya). Inward traits include qualities of spiritual adornment (tahliya)—such as repentance, fear, hope, modesty, gratitude, patience, sincerity, love, reliance on God, and contentment with divine decree—as well as the purging (takhliya) of vices such as love of wealth and status, malice, envy, ostentation, hypocrisy, and vanity . Outward deeds encompass verbal acts (pronouncing the two testimonies of faith, truthfulness, Quranic recitation, and religious learning and teaching) and physical practices (ritual purification, covering the nakedness, prayer, zakat, attending funerals, fasting, Hajj, fulfilling vows, and expiations) .
- Duties toward others are categorized into domestic (manziliyya)—such as marital chastity, marriage contracts and obligations, filial piety, child-rearing, kinship ties, and kindness to servants—and civic (madaniyya), which include governance, adherence to the community, obedience to authorities, mutual aid in righteousness, commanding right and forbidding wrong, and the preservation of religion, life, intellect, property, and honor through the administration of legal boundaries and the removal of harm from Muslims .
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Faith in the Hereafter encompasses belief in the resurrection, standing before God, the reckoning, the scale (al-mizan), the traverse (al-sirat), intercession, Paradise, and the Hellfire .
Sources and Transmission
Al-Zabidi states that his concise schema is an essential summary of the lengthier works on the branches of faith by Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi (384–458 AH) and Abu Muhammad Abd al-Jalil ibn Musa al-Qasri (d. 608 AH), directing readers who seek comprehensive detail to their writings .
The text was preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya in a manuscript compilation (no. 2018 Tarikh ʿUmumi), copied on 16 Jumada al-Thaniya 1321 AH by Muhammad Abu al-Nasr Hashim al-Jaʿfari al-Nabulsi at the behest of the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad Mahmud al-Tunkuzi al-Shinqiti (known as Ibn al-Talamid, d. 1322 AH) . It was later edited by Nizam Muhammad Salih Yaʿqubi and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut in 1421 AH / 2000 CE .
Answer updated